Further information: The agenda includes a 3:30 p.m. opportunity for public testimony. People can listen to the meeting through an online connection available through a link on the "Interim Information" bar on the Colorado General Assembly's home page, leg.state.co.us.

DENVER -- A special state legislative panel will hold its first meeting Tuesday as it studies responses to the catastrophic mid-September floods.

"I think the committee's job is going to be to listen and to try to come up with any legislative fixes for what can be fixed," said Rep. Mike Foote, D-Lafayette.

"With this much destruction and heartache," said Sen. Matt Jones, D-Louisville, lawmakers need to review the adequacy of the state's recovery programs.

Foote, Jones and Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, are three eastern Boulder County lawmakers who'll be serving on the Flood Disaster Study Committee, which is expected to meet at least five times to review existing state laws, policies and resources for dealing with situations such as the floods that inundated parts of Colorado's Front Range and eastern plains.

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The committee needs to make sure federal and nonprofit resources are being used as efficiently as possible, Jones said.

Jones said lawmakers and their constituents "need to remind the rest of the state that recovery and long-term needs are continuing."

Singer said the panel should consider what turned out to be "the best practices" in emergency responses and subsequent recovery efforts to see whether they can be applied in the future.

Foote cautioned that "there will be a lot of things legislation can't fix."

He said one concern he's heard from flood victims is that their insurance policies didn't adequately cover their losses, even if they had flood insurance.

Singer said one issue that's arisen is the shortage of affordable housing available to accommodate the needs of flood-displaced residents.

The agenda for Tuesday's Flood Disaster Study Committee includes appearances by members of Gov. John Hickenlooper's staff, a representative from Colorado Attorney General John Suthers' office, and officials from a variety of local, state and federal departments and agencies.

Other members of the committee include two Larimer County lawmakers whose districts had areas hit by the floods -- House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland, and Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud -- and Sen. Jeanne Nicholson, a Black Hawk Democrat whose multiple-county district extends into southern Boulder County.